Author: Chuck Andrews CPP
ISBN No: 9798-88739-004-8
Review date: 05/05/2024
No of pages: 100
Publisher: Chuck Andrews CPP
Publisher URL:
https://www.friendsofchuck.com/amazon-bestseller-yes-sir/
Year of publication: 17/10/2022
Brief:
price
£$19.99 paperback
Chuck Andrews is a Texas cop turned security professional whose Friends of Chuck online group is a global phenomenon. He was at the International Security Expo at London Olympia last month (pictured) and when asked handed Professional Security Magazine a (signed) copy of his book: Yes, SIR. It could be, Mark Rowe writes, the most helpful little book you ever open.
That’s because of the sub-title: The Security Influencer’s Guide to Success using Strategy, Intelligence and Relationships. Hence the SIR. As Chuck makes plain from the autobiographical beginning of his book, he was already a dab hand at networking before any of us had heard of such internet sites as Myspace (remember that?!) and Linkedin (‘the greatest thing since sliced bread’, he enthuses). He’s set up his own brand, Friends of Chuck (FOC) with website, logo (and yes, the real Chuck does wear a stetson, even on the show floor of the Expo) and a staggeringly large database of folk.
Yes, alternatives are around, such as the security management association ASIS International (and early on in his transition from law enforcer to security man, Chuck gained the ASIS CPP qualification). The difference is that Friends of Chuck, unlike ASIS, to maybe state the obvious, is an individual, which is appealing over any organisation because who isn’t tickled to have something, or rather someone, in common with thousands of others, in any number of towns?
The book introduces us to the man who grew up in Lake Jackson, ‘home to Dow Chemical’s Freeport facility, the largest chemical plant in the world’. A UK equivalent place might be Port Talbot, or Immingham on Humberside. It’s commonplace to hear people in UK private security say that they fell into it. For Chuck, it started when a schoolmate passed by and said he was cycling to the local police station to a weekly meeting of the Law Enforcement Police Explorers (an American police equivalent of the Boy Scouts). Chuck went – and ‘had discovered my life’s calling’.
An early line (page 4) of Chuck’s sets the tone as well as any:
“When in law enforcement, you’re in the people business. From how you gesture, to how you speak, to how you approach others, it’s all about how you treat people. For instance, I learned to get down on one knee when talking to a young child so as not to intimidate them. Basically, I developed the ability to become a chameleon with all types of people to get them to relate to me and be more cooperative.”
As an aside, this could have been a very different and less likeable book. Any memoir runs the risk of being me-me-me, and you could add the English sceptic’s prejudices against Texans as brash or even JR Ewing-like devious. It’s anything but – for one thing, it’s (purposely) very short, even to the point of being abrupt, when you see that several of the 88 pages of narrative are given over to photos. This is not a book that outstays its welcome.
The final three chapters, about a quarter of the book are given over to that SIR method of developing your career, but I would rather single out an earlier, more intriguing, chapter, titled simply ‘Have Fun’. Who else doing private security would identify having fun as ‘one of the key secrets to being successful in the security space’, and indeed policing.
How can that be, when security and law enforcement are so serious, and so much bad stuff happens? That’s precisely one of the reasons Chuck argues for fun, because otherwise the work can make anyone morbid (‘we become cynical, start to dislike people, and too many of us turn to alcohol and/or drugs to dull the pain’, which can lead to addiction and ruining other people’s lives also). Chuck acknowledges that security and police, by being ‘in the problem-solving business’, can burn out, given all the risks and responsibilities. In sum, learning how to have fun, while doing your job, is to Chuck essential. And, we might add, a useful piece of advice for any line of work and life in general.
More practically speaking, as Chuck goes on to explain, having or not having fun can help you to ‘figure yourself out’ – are you in the right job, or is the workplace or client so toxic, it’s not worth your time and no matter how good the money, ‘you have to cut ties and find a client that allows for fun’. Chuck has the gift of taking anything no matter how unpromising: “You have to learn to have fun – I can’t say that enough.” The so-bad-it-was-quite-good Hollywood film Paul Blart: Mall Cop? Chuck took a team to see it: “We thought of it as a humorous training film.” (Although what did Chuck make of Paul Blart; Mall Cop 2?!).
It may well be that you know much of Chuck’s advice already – about being mentored and mentoring, and doing networking (it doesn’t have to be through FOC; it can be through ASIS or other associations) and getting stuff done generally. Still, if you feel you are at a crossroads in your career or life generally, this book can inspire and repay half an hour or so of your time by giving you new ideas. Or even if you feel things are going fine, Chuck’s book and messages are worth taking in to confirm what you already know and do, or half-suspected made sense.
Such as, if you’re going to some event, why not say so on Linkedin, so that people who want to hook up with you in person, can do so? That said, if you say you’re going, and you don’t, your reputation could suffer; and reputation is precious, easily harmed. You may find some of Chuck’s advice about good habits too difficult to carry out – and he does admit it’s hard work, such as keeping up with the news and your relationships by reading blogs and a daily source of respected news.
One slight quibble; Chuck mentions ‘Chatham House rules’ – that you don’t want to keep doing business with people who can’t or won’t respect things said in confidence. To be exact, it’s a Chatham House rule.
Otherwise – Yes, SIR!
Visit https://www.friendsofchuck.com/.
